Fine Art

Exhibition: Rumors of Arctic Belonging

I’m so happy to announce that my photographic exhibition, Rumors of Arctic Belonging, is on show at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR. Rumors was in the works for 5 years until finally I understood the through-line that connected all of my work across the circumpolar Arctic, from Alaska to Russia– to see the Arctic as a living and flourishing land. Come for the polar bears, stay for the intimate looks at Arctic life.

Towering icebergs, doomed expeditions in tall ships, desolate landscapes with naught but howling wind– this was the vast Arctic from the paintings of European explorers in the 19th century. That romance carries on in the 21st century, even as the ice vanishes and increasing numbers of people experience the North in person.

When the future has its way with the North, it will leave a radically altered land. The sea ice and its denizens will have vanished.  Contemporary Inuit will be living vastly different lifestyles than that of their ancestors. Future generations will look back to remember a land little understood by outsiders.

Dates:
September 3-27 at Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR. You can visit from 12-5pm, Wed-Sat, with appointments available, or walk-ins. Limited to 10 visitors at once.

You can also check out my recorded Artist Talk with Zemie Barr from Blue Sky Gallery.

Exhibition, Talk and Workshop at Museum of Art Fort Collins

I am excited to announce my first major solo exhibition, of People of the Whale! It’s in Colorado at the Museum of Art Fort Collins through the Center for Fine Art Photography.

My work serves as a counterpoint to the other half of the museum, which has an exhibition titled, “50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic.” Curator Hamidah Glasgow thought it would be a great way to show, in a sense, the fading mainstream world of photojournalism juxtaposed against the new breed of photographer that is seeking to de-colonize journalism. In this case, it also serves to highlight that National Geographic itself has made big changes to how it tells stories and who is telling them.

Opening & Talks, Friday Nov 8th

Jen Samuel, National Geographic photo editor (above), and I will be talking about photography and journalism at the Museum of Art, Fort Collins, Nov 8th.

The opening reception is Friday, November 8th. I’ll be doing an artist talk about my work with Arctic indigenous peoples, then leading up to something quite amazing: Jen Samuel, a photo editor from National Geographic, and I, asking each other questions and talking about photography and journalism!

Many thanks to Hamidah Glasgow and Jen Samuel for making it all come together!

Îslandia featured by TIME

My recent series on Iceland has been featured on TIME.com. Îslandia is a series that looks at Iceland from a distinctly fine art perspective and tries to get away from the grand touristed vistas.

More than 1 trillion photographs are made every year, according to some estimates, an unthinkable figure that compounds a longtime problem for photographers: How do you make your work stand out in such a crowded field?

I think this is a very good question, and also asks an even more important question– how do you make work that is deeper, that is a unique personal response to subjects that have been photographed an infinite number of times?

I spoke to TIME’s deputy editor Alex Fitzpatrick and multimedia editor Josh Raab about my approach. Find out my response to this question at TIME.com.